Sierra Mountain Times

The Channel 6 (PBS) signal breaking up.   

Story and photo by Gordon Molloy

 For some time I have been experiencing terrible reception on cable TV. It started out about two months ago with Channel 6 ( PBS ) where the audio was out of sink with the video. It was like watching a foreign film with English dubbed in. Then a variety of channels started having this strange video problem where the picture would freeze and break up into little squares. First it was only Channel 14 ( IONTV ). Then it spread to Channel 3 and 13. Now I have to admit, I have the least expensive cable TV package Comcast offers because, lets face it, there is very little on TV worth watching. My “basic” cable TV package costs only $17.51 per month so I kind of expected a “so-so” reception but all these recent problems are more than I’m willing to take. I feel sorry for those who subscribe to monthly packages that cost over $100 a month. It is beyond me why anyone would spend that kind of money for the programming offered in those packages… but that’s just me.

The first thing I did was go online to the Comcast site and explain my reception problems. Their tech service came back with a lot of “canned” ways to fix it but they all dealt with problems with my television set. When I explained it was a transmission problem, they claimed there were no reported problems in my area. I called several friends that have Comcast cable TV and they all confirmed the same reception problems. I wanted a service technician to come out to my residence and see the problem first hand, but before I did that, I called the local Comcast number and ordered a monthly service policy that covered house calls. It only costs 99 cents a month! At the same time, I ordered a service call for this week and they said they would be out between 1 and 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Well, one ‘o’clock came and went, then 2 p.m. followed by 3 p.m. Finally at 3:15 p.m., I got a call from the technician assigned to the service call. He admitted that Comcast was recently having big problems with their signal. It is part of the change over to all digital TV coming in about thirty days.. Some channels have already made the change over to a digital signal, which is why you see the picture breaking up into little squares. Comcast is in the process to switch some of the problem channels to a satellite feed which should cure the reception problems. I also mentioned that Channel 2, which is Fox from Oakland, has a “ghost” and the quality of the picture varies depending on the time of day. He advised me that in a month, Channel 2 will be permanently removed from the channels that Comcast offers and will be replaced with something different. I suggested CNN Headline News since the “basic package” I have does not offer CNN. In the same breath, I said, please don’t make it another Spanish channel or one of those non-stop infomercials for junk nobody wants or needs!. I already have too many of those channels!

  So as Paul Harvey would say…”now you know the rest of the story.”  Now all we have to do is wait a couple of weeks and see if Comcast can finally offer a cable TV signal that you can actually watch. In my opinion, every subscriber to Comcast cable TV should receive at least two months of cable at no charge or better yet, a two-month cash refund.